In this episode of Revolution Revisited, host Maggie Creech and historian Eric Sterner shift the Revolution’s focus beyond the Northeast to the contested western frontier—western Virginia and Pennsylvania into the Ohio Valley and Illinois—where competing land claims, shifting Indigenous diplomacy, and British posts fueled violence. They trace George Rogers Clark’s rise from Virginia surveyor and Dunmore’s War veteran to Kentucky leader, his political ties to figures like Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson, and his recruitment of volunteers amid hints of land rewards.

With roughly 150 men, Clark launched the 1778 Illinois campaign, seizing Kaskaskia, Cahokia, and Vincennes largely through surprise and intimidation, then later recapturing Vincennes by bluffing Henry Hamilton into surrender. The episode also highlights brutal episodes, Jefferson’s directives toward Native nations, mixed Indigenous responses, Clark’s limited success securing Kentucky, his later bankruptcy and decline, and the shifting myths and reassessments of his legacy, including his statue’s removal in 2021.

Eric Sterner, Author & Historian

• Eric Sterner earned a BA from American University and two MAs from George Washington University. He worked in the defense and aerospace field, serving on the staff of two Congressional committees and in the Department of Defense and as a NASA Associate Deputy Administrator. He is the author of Till the Extinction of This Rebellion, Anatomy of a Massacre: The Destruction of Gnaddenhutten, 1782 and The Battle of Upper Sandusky, 1782. He contributes regularly to the Journal of the American Revolution and Emerging Revolutionary War Era.

• 00:00 Welcome
• 00:39 Why the Western Front
• 01:56 Defining the Revolutionary West
• 02:40 Treaties and Frontier Tensions
• 05:32 Neutrality and Dunmore’s War
• 07:13 Meet George Rogers Clark
• 09:52 Kentucky Politics and Gunpowder
• 13:02 Taking the Offensive Plan
• 15:20 Pitch to Patrick Henry
• 17:13 Recruiting and Corn Island
• 18:17 Why Men Volunteered
• 23:30 Bloodless Takeover of Illinois
• 26:56 Hamilton Strikes Back
• 28:29 Winter March to Vincennes
• 29:59 War’s Wider Impact
• 31:02 Violence and Native Relations
• 35:15 Did Clark Secure the West
• 37:23 Clark’s Postwar Downfall
• 40:01 Mythmaking and Reassessment
• 42:39 Closing and Next Episode

Revolution Revisited™ is produced by the Virginia Museum of History & Culture. This podcast is made possible by the generous support of William & Karen Fralin. © 2026 Virginia Museum of History & Culture.